MIAMI--Simon Konover, the founder and patriarch of Simon Konover Company and Konover South, has passed away. His company had operations in West Hartford, CT and Deerfield Beach, FL.

Konover is recognized as an exceptional philanthropist, as a pillar of both the national and Hartford Jewish communities, and as one of Connecticut's outstanding civic leaders. His deeds, accomplishments and commitment live beyond him. His life was devoted to community, enormous generosity and kind deeds.

Konover was born in the small shtetl of Makow Mazowieki in Poland, one of eight children. At age 16 at the start of World War II in 1939, he was interned in a Nazi labor farm, where he survived unimaginable indignities. He narrowly escaped to Russia, where he was drafted into its army.